Pricing Works: How Pricing Of Municipal Services And Infrastructure Can Lead To Healthier And More Efficient Cities

2016

As Ontario’s cities, industries, and farms continue to grow, so do the impacts they have on our environment. Yet these environmental costs are not factored in the prices we see in markets.

Market-based pricing policies — like environmental fees, taxes, or market-based instruments — can provide an incentive for fee-payers to explore innovative solutions to make more efficient uses of natural resources and minimize environmental harm.

Pricing Works: How pricing of municipal services and infrastructure can lead to healthier and more efficient cities examines opportunities for using pricing policy tools to help address environmental problems and generate revenue to increase the financial sustainability of our municipal services.

Pricing Works is the fourth paper in the Metcalf Foundation’s Green Prosperity series that addresses a range of issues and opportunities in building a low-carbon, resource efficient, and resilient Canada. Two more papers will be released in the coming months.